Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Skype Founder Interviewed On Engadget

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-voice-should-be-cheap dept.

prostoalex writes "Niklas Zennström, the ever-elusive CEO of Skype, is interviewed by Engadget. Turns out Skype currently has more than 13 mln users in 200+ countries. The interview also discusses the future of Skype and VOIP applications in general."

11 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Mobility by Arbin · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm unsure as to how VoIP is going to pan out. I think the ultimate killer-app for it would be the ability to be mobile and not restricted to the same elements as a regular land-line.

    1. Re:Mobility by jacksonj04 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      For the love of God make sure it uses IPv6 first!

      I believe Skype is already multiplatform and has some use on mobile devices (PocketPC 2003). Combine with Bluetooth and a mobile phone with GPRS, and you've got a really expensive mobile!

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
  2. My poor Linux by Omniscientist · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Has anyone tried Skype on Linux? Knowing our good friend here has a fetish for spyware (a la Kazaa) does it install adaware/spyware on Linux? Is nothing sacred anymore?

  3. Comments on skype by Nomeko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok, first of all, I must say:

    I love Skype. Really.

    Since I got it working I have been calling my family for affordable prises. It makes it possible for me to call my parents, my grandparents, my siblings in Norway, and allso Friends studying in other countries all over the world. And for this I love Skype..

    But!!!

    There is always a but.

    Skype has introdused a rather strict paying system, and in fact, it markt me as a possible fraud, thus making it impossible for me to pay.

    Why?

    Because I managed to use my credit card in a country from which it didn't origin. And; I did this three times, thus blocking it for ever beeing used at Skype.

    This is all well and fine, as Skype must secure themselves and their customers. BUT; They inform about this nowhere. In their questions and answers, not even in their live help. I spendt one week talking to customer support, trying to get things to work, but instead of beeing honest and tell me that, sorry, I don't think it is going to work they had me try again tomorrow.

    At the end of the week they were nice enough to tell me that all IP's from Argentina was blocked. Too late :)

    So. Allthough they provide a nice new service, they still lack in customer support.

    All grudges aside, I had a friend in norway buy credits for me, and now I am a happy ignorant skype user ;)

    1. Re:Comments on skype by eobanb · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My problem with Skype is this.

      The very first versions of AIM had no ads. Zero, none. At all. Then there was a small one. Then it became animated. And they added some stupid shit. Then the ad became bigger.

      Isn't ANYONE afraid that this is going to happen with Skype? That these sons of bitches will backstab everyone and put ads in the free version of Skype once enough people have started using it? You may say, "oh, but this is different" all you like. These guys made KaZaA Media Desktop, too. That says it all right there.

      Also, as a user of Mac OS X, I consider the user interface of Skype (at least, the Mac version of it) to be an absolute abomination.

      Mod me down all you want, but these guys aren't just giving centrally-managed VoIP away free to everyone for all time. Pretty soon there are going to have to be some sacrifices, which is why I completely prefer Jabber and iChat AV. Fortunately, with Tiger, those two will be more united than they are now. I like Apple's implementation of audio and video chatting. Yeah, did I mention Skype doesn't do video, even as an option? Way to set us back a few years, guys. I, for one, have seen webcams for sale for what, $10? It's not like it's some expensive toy for the elite. It's useful, I think, in humanising online communication.

      So in conclusion, while I welcome the IDEA of Skype, their implementation just sucks. So far Apple is doing this much better. I know, I know, it isn't cross platform, but it's still better. I also think it'd probably be easier to write programs compatible with iChat's A/V stuff as opposed to Skype's...

      --

      Take off every sig. For great justice.

  4. Bloated by linolium · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Skype seems a bit bloated though; the Windows executable weighs in at just over 10 MB. For a small VoIP application, I find this pretty rediculous. How could they possibly make it take up so much space?

  5. 200+ countries ? by deniea · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, that's really extra terrestial, as I thought that ther are only 192 international recognised countries !

  6. Instantly Irrelevant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Skype is a pretty cool system. I've used it a couple of times and found it to be pleasant. However, I'm shocked that so many people vote to use it since its a closed source project from a company who shows how much they value their customers by including spyware in their products.

    The sad part is that VoIP is better. I'll grant skype has fewer issues with latency, but with a decent internet connection you can get awesome audio quality from a well configured Asterisk box.

    I'll vote with my wallet. When skype goes open source I'll contribute, otherwise I'll stick to Asterisk, and the ability to create/control my own system. I'd rather the new era in telephony is owned by users rather than a corporation with questionable values.

  7. Re:Skype = today's Ham Radio for everybody :-) by 42forty-two42 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I've also used a Kenwood TS-2000 HF / VHF / UHF transceiver remotely (it's a bit like the now dated JavaRadio, but with Transmit Capabilities for licensed Hams). ... all via Skype!
    Where can this be accessed?
  8. Re:Gnomemeeting does use UDP, by abigor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's also SRTP. RTP is the protocol used with the actual sound, which is encoded in some way (g711 ulaw is very common). SRTP is an encrypted version of the protocol.

    GnomeMeeting is cool, but it uses h.323 for call setup, widely considered to be on its way out in the voip world. Microsoft has dropped NetMeeting, which GnomeMeeting was designed to replace. Replacing h.323 is SIP. KPhone is a good Linux SIP softphone.

    Basically, I believe Skype uses a proprietary call setup scheme (instead of h.323 or SIP), along with standard stuff like RTP and some kind of sound encoding. Then they made it really easy to use.

    Finally, there is IAX2. It is open, documented, supported by the biggest open source pbx (Asterisk), and does NAT traversal very well. I'd love to see dedicated soft and hardphones using this protocol.

  9. Re:Skype = today's Ham Radio for everybody :-) by dracvl · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Oh, so you are that random guy that keeps calling me just because my Skype account name begins with an A and is at the top of the list.

    But seriously, my major problem with Skype is an inability to only receive calls from people that are on your list (why that list isn't centrally stored is another mystery).

    Yes, they can be blocked, but normally it's not repeated callers, it's different people every time. I want people to be on the blacklist until I've added them, much like IM works.